Statistics Canada Reports Crime Severity Index Down
A new report by Statistics Canada states that the seriousness of crimes reported to the police fell significantly in the decade before 2007.
The Police-reported Crime Severity Index "tracks changes in the severity of police-reported crime. Each offence is assigned a weight and more serious crimes are assigned higher weights, or relative importance. Changes in more serious crimes, such as break-ins and robberies, drive changes in the index."
This is the first time the federal statistics agency has used the index, which is not the same as the more well-known crime rate (which measures pure volume for different kinds of crime).
According to the report:
The report also allows for comparisons between provinces and major metropolitan regions of Canada.
The Police-reported Crime Severity Index "tracks changes in the severity of police-reported crime. Each offence is assigned a weight and more serious crimes are assigned higher weights, or relative importance. Changes in more serious crimes, such as break-ins and robberies, drive changes in the index."
This is the first time the federal statistics agency has used the index, which is not the same as the more well-known crime rate (which measures pure volume for different kinds of crime).
According to the report:
"Crime severity is expressed as an index for which 2006 is the base year at 100. In 2007, the index for overall crime was 94.6, down from 119.1 in 1998. This means that crime severity fell by about 20% during the decade. The 10-year decline was driven by a 40% drop in break-ins."However, the severity index for violent crime (homicide, robberies and sexual assault) stayed relatively stable during the decade.
The report also allows for comparisons between provinces and major metropolitan regions of Canada.
Labels: criminal law, statistics
1 Comments:
Interesting numbers, glad to see the number of smaller crimes drop. I don't think there is anything we can do about the serious crimes though. They will always happen because of the mentality of the people that commit them. Small crime violators can be always affected and change their mind about the crime, either run scared or rethink their situation and the consequences. But people who murder, rape, rob will always be here. It's the small percentage of the population that is mentally different. Anyways, thanks for the article,
take care, Elli
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